To-Do List: Romney Speaks; Assange in Embassy for a Year?

To know: Mitt Romney delivered his first speech as the Republican Presidential nominee last night at the Republican National Convention (John Cassidy has more on the speech) … French journalist Anne Sinclair confirmed that she and former I.M.F. chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn have separated… The Pentagon has threatened a Navy SEAL with legal action after he wrote a book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, in violation of nondisclosure agreements … Julian Assange predicts he could be in London’s Ecuadoran Embassy for up to a year while fighting extradition charges … Three people are dead, including the gunmen, after a shooting at a New Jersey supermarket this morning.

To read: For the New York Times Magazine, Hanna Rosin explores gender roles in the South during the recession:

Reuben said he realized that he would never have his old work life back and tried to remake himself. He found a job as director of mall operations in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and then one at a conference-call company in West Point, Ga., and next at a tire plant in Dothan, Ala. None lasted long. One “crazy thing or another,” as Patsy puts it, always doomed him: his long commutes, his health, family obligations, constant reminders that he was no longer his own boss. Over time, he became discouraged. He wasn’t “making the money I need to be making.”

As Reuben’s paychecks became less dependable, Patsy began “stressing” and wondered what she could do to help. Over the years she taught music at day-care centers, sometimes taking their youngest daughter, Jordan, with her. She had been “scared to death” to go back to college, but she studied at night with the aim of becoming a special-education teacher. Around 2006, a friend cornered her in a hallway at church and said she knew of a job that sounded perfect for her. Patsy was known as a helper by nature, driving seniors to church, assisting the youth choir, organizing mission trips. The friend recommended an opening at the city housing authority as a family self-sufficiency coordinator, which meant helping families in public housing become independent by connecting them with services.

Being a self-sufficiency coordinator involved a maternal touch, like encouraging single mothers to continue their education, obtain prenatal care and find reliable child care. Patsy had little experience in the work force and did not think of herself as a professional or a manager, but the friend told her she could possibly make as much as $20 an hour, which sounded better than the $5.50 she made at day care. It might not have been enough for Reuben, but to Patsy, who never had a steady paycheck, it sounded incredible. In three years she was promoted twice and is now director of family services. “I can only say it was God’s hand that did it,” she says. “I wasn’t searching for a job like that, not with my skills.”

For Wired, Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes about the cultural dominance of cats on the Internet:

A cat wearing a short tie plays music on a cat-shaped keyboard (“Pancake Meowsic Video,” 185,459 views). A woman performs sun salutations with a cat on her back (“Cat Loves Yoga,” 1,539 views). A man slaps two cats on an ironing board to the beat of “Atmosphere” (“Cat Slap Joy Division,” 357,605 views; watch this one). (Now, I mean.) Kittens try to keep up with an accelerating treadmill (“Treadmill Kittens,” 3.4 million views). A fat cat walks on an underwater treadmill (“Fat Cat Walking on Underwater Treadmill,” 133,434 views). Two cats cuff at a treadmill in perplexed inquisition (“Cats Try to Understand Treadmill,” 1.9 million views). Search YouTube for “cat treadmill” and see how many results there are. Or, actually, don’t.

Writing that paragraph took more than an hour. To continue the catalog for a page would’ve taken weeks. But if one has set out to say something definitive about the relationship between cats and the Internet, it’s important not to be delayed indefinitely by Internet cats.

To watch: Clint Eastwood delivers a surprising speech, including a conversation with an imaginary President Obama, at the R.N.C. last night (Amy Davidson have more):

Sign up for our daily newsletter and get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box.

Recommended Stories

As the years passed, Tom grew more entrenched in his homelessness. He was absorbed in lofty fantasies and private missions, aware of the basest necessities and the most transcendent abstractions, and almost nothing in between.